Friday, January 31, 2014

Well, if the title doesn't give it away already, let me spell it out. Ghost is discussing about his never-to-be project Daemons in the Attic or wonderfully abbreviated DITA. Splitting the post-mortem in 5 parts, here's part one.

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Basically, the ever awesome Baron shares his story as a forumite from his perspective. It is as subjective as it is interesting. Behind the most intriguing games possibly ever made, an unsung hero of the community. Also the first man to coordinate the biggest team perhaps in indie game development and actually make a game out of it. If his only achievement was coming up with the full title of Besieged (a wonderful reference to a certain Kubrick film) I would love him the same. Respect from this very greek. If you have never talked to the Baron, pm the bastard and start discussions about the conquest of the world.

January 29, 2003: a day that will live in infamy in the annals of AGS history. Or it would, if anyone ever wrote an AGS history -but that's another topic. On this date I decided to stop lurking like some sort of creepy dude in the bushes and start participating in this community. Can you believe I've been an AGSer for a decade! My, the time flies when you're having fun.

But this is not going to be another gushing ode to the forum and its many temptations -I already exhausted that topic for my 1000th post last summer. No, this rambling dissertation will attempt to account for the fruits of the vast amounts of time I have poured into AGS over an entire decade, with the aim of better understanding how I have evolved as an artist and where I am heading in the coming decade. I'm also interested in your own AGS journey: where have you come from and where are you going?

So it all began for me back in the Silver Age of AGS: The universe had already cooled, Yahtzee had already left, and CJ only occasionally deigned to smite the odd mortal from his cloud-top perch. And into this brave newish world I released the immensely silly AL-Quest 1:

I'm not going to delve into the game's obvious graphical failings. I remember carefully overpainting all of the original Roger sprites that I had ripped from the Demo Game, only to discover that I created a character 1/6 proper scale ....and then changing the plot to involve a shrinking sequence so that I could make use of the work anyway! Suffice it to say I learned a lot, which is apparent as the game progresses, but I'm still amazed to this day by the fact that I created an entire game of such length (40 rooms) without learning even a line of coding. In fact, I never would have gotten into AGS at all if not for the no0b-friendly interaction editor. I still think it was a mistake to let that lapse.... Anyway, AL-Quest 1 was never a huge hit, although player feedback was in general surprisingly positive. Like most first projects, it was a fantastic learning experience and served as a good stepping stone for my future endeavours.

The next game I finished was The Winter Rose, released in 2005:

This project was a vast departure from AL-Quest. Firstly, I made myself code everything -everything!. Sure, I'd often use the interaction editor to see what code it would use to accomplish something, but it was 100% scripted by me. I remember being so very proud of that fact, and of course the skills I learned in this process enabled me to undertake all manner of projects afterwards. The game itself was graphically quite complex: hand-painted backgrounds with pixel work painstakingly made to fit in. In terms of mood it was a much more sombre adventure than I had designed before, although as you can see from the screenshot of the heroine pulling a blade out of a yeti's butt I never did manage to tame the silly beast within.... The Winter Rose was very well received, but people were in general disappointed by the ending -I've tried to internalize that lesson in the endings of my subsequent games.

Next I worked on my opus, Charlie Foxtrot and the Galaxy of Tomorrow, a parody of the sci-fi genre released in 2007:

At 80 rooms this is the biggest game I ever finished. The backgrounds are occasionally cringe worthy, and the MIDI music was a bit of a bust (which taught me to seek out the aid of competent musicians in future), but the animation is masterful -masterful! Even today I am amazed at the sheer amount of animation, and by the fact that it was entirely done with MS Paint. What was I thinking!?! I don't even know what I could accomplish if I still had that amount of time on my hands.... The game was incredibly and intentionally silly -for the first puzzle you have to flush yourself down an alien toilet to escape the guards (pictured). At any rate, the game was a bit of a cult classic, very much appreciated by people who like my silly humour. I learned a lot about animation, but most importantly I learned if I was going to pursue more ambitious projects I would need to depart from my old methods.

So I decided to try collaboration. The first attempt was with Yarooze with Besieged, released in 2008.

Graphically it is the best pixel art I've ever done (character art & animations -Yarooze did the backgrounds). Funkmast's music was phenomenal. The plot was about a lowly dung-shoveller who had to save the castle from a siege before the king catapulted him to death. Perhaps there was a bit too much toilet humour (you literally had to sit on "the throne" a couple times to solve a puzzle), perhaps it was the authentic Olde English font that was slightly hard to read, or maybe it was just that I put it into the "short" category in the database, but for whatever reason the game never seemed to gain any traction with the players. Considering all the work I put into the art, this made me reflect that if I was going to keep making games with my shrinking free time (ah, the perils of parenthood...), I would really have to streamline my work process.

So I collaborated again, this time with Ascovel (Igor) on a MAGS game, later expanded to a proper game with extra scenes, named Snakes of Avalon, released in 2010:

I expressly wanted to work on the animation using the vector power of Flash, but had a fantastic time bantering plot ideas back and forth with Igor. While the animation was panned by the critics, the amount that I learned was well worth the effort, as I easily cut the amount of effort-per-frame by 3/4. Suddenly the sky was the limit! I was also very satisfied that the macabre plot and social commentary in the game were extremely well-received, but of course a large portion of the credit for this goes to Igor.

My secret plan for refining my skills with vector-animation was to undertake an epic fantasy project. I haven't finished it, and have abandoned it twice already, but I feel Curses & Castles is an important part of my growth as an AGSer so I'll share it here:

The lazy and sarcastic uncle-king has been turned into a frog (and ever present side-kick), while his dutiful princess-niece has to save the realm from five curses of an arch-sorceress. The idea was to make a commercial adventure of epic scope and length, and I think that's why it failed (at least, so far....). In retrospect it was too big, too ambitious for one man to actualize in his occasional spare hours. When I pushed myself to burn the candle at both ends my health began to fail me, and it's been an off-and-on relationship between me and the game ever since. I still believe that if I could pull this off it would be a fantastic game, but.... Well, perhaps one day I'll cobble together the means to pull it off.

A little depressed by the failure of C&C, I kind of shot my mouth off about a crazy new way of making games where everyone would do a minimal amount of work but together could create a masterpiece of game art. While this dream of effortless game creation never really panned out (it was actually a lot of work!), the resulting Draculator II, sometimes simply referred to as "The Swarm Project", renewed my interest in the AGS community. It was released in 2011:

Despite the copious correspondence required to coordinate the efforts of 40 swarmers, I liked the challenge of trying to weave it altogether into a unique piece of art. Yeah it was short, but I will always value the connections I made through the effort. It's also been great to fall back on that network to find collaborators for other purposes, be it voice actors or people with technical abilities far beyond my own (ie coding, sound editing, music, etc. etc.). You rock, Swarm.

After the swarm project I tried my hand at a shorter, hereto unannounced fantasy project tentatively called Flutterby Dawn about a secret agent pixie who has to combat the evil designs of the Order of Nefarious Organisms (ONO):

The background world was to be a living organism, with all native "technology" really just repurposed organisms (such as the sparkle vision set, pictured), and the plot a kind of James Bond-esque tongue-in-cheek spy thriller. This time I spent much less time on art (very little animation, minimal effort on backgrounds) in an attempt to finish the game first, and then polish it up later. Various strains on my free time (new job, no sleep due to expanding family, etc.) have also caused this project to be shelved for the time being, but as equilibrium is slowly restored to my life I can see myself picking it back up.

And lastly, I finally did finish a vector-art adventure, although you won't be able to play it until March or April or whenever the next Bake Sale is finally going to be released. This is Blue Lobe Inc., the story about a trio of hapless adventure game developers who start their own company to make commercial adventure games (ah... sound familiar? ).

It's supposed to be a web-comic/game/cartoon about adventure gaming. You'll notice more than just a bit of commentary about the classics, including the occasional puzzle twist from the past! The game mostly makes fun of my own failed ambitions, while ironically potentially being a successful fundraising vehicle for the AGS community. Only time will tell on that front!

So, in conclusion, it's been a long journey, I'm still puttering away at stuff, maybe one day I'll make that perfect game, yada yada, yada. So how did you become the master game-maker of the future? What's your last decade been like in terms of AGS productivity? Share!

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

If you haven't seen the new sticky or received the e-mail today, then look below:

As many of you should know, we have a number of AGS ports now that let run AGS games on other platforms (linux, etc). Plugins remain a problem, because they were written as Windows dynamic libraries. JJS already rewrote couple of plugins, and Calin disclosed his AGSBlend and SpriteFont plugins, so that their code could be used to compile plugins for other systems too.

Are there anyone else who would like to disclose his/her plugin source to let the games, which used them, become fully portable? Perhaps someone may contact plugin authors that did not visit forums for a while?Could there be a reason to not to disclose plugin source?

Additionally, I want to mention, that maybe it could be a good idea to state a rule, that AGS plugin should be made open source from the start (NOTE: "open-source" does not mean "free to use")? Aside from portability, this would also ensure that no one will put something unexpected, like malicious code in there.

To unsubscribe from these announcements, login to the forum and uncheck "Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email" in your profile.

Monday, January 27, 2014

Arcee is a transformer lady or gynoid. Arr is a pirate's most beloved throaty grunt. RC also stands for rollercoaster and, in this case, for RELEASE CANDIDATE.

AGS 3.3.0 is now at the RC stage where things may get polished and fixed a bit more but, and this is important, where stuff can be considered feature complete. Old dogs like me may stick to 3.2.1 for a while, or in Ponch's case to 1.2, but really, I can't stress this enough- AGS has been made open-source, and many hands have shaped this new version, and it looks nice indeed.

Friday, January 24, 2014

I'm going to pitch you a wonderful idea about a very interesting competition. You may love this, and you may not. But arguably it will appear to be rather appealing, enticing if you will.

As members of an indie game community, we can all agree that videogames in general, can exist as a genre of art. In the same way as movie directors, certain videogame creators, have a distinctive style that defines them. I could spot a Tim Schafer game from a mile, and the critically-acclaimed game designer, has swapped lots of genres over the past few years.

For example, take two different takes on the same universe/tale.

Christofer Nolan's Take

Tim Burton's Take

So, what I'm suggesting is a competition if you will, where a story/universe/setting is present, perhaps somewhat vague, and practically we see how each author envisions the end product. Would you find this interesting?

Monday, January 20, 2014

On why this blog was a bit silent, well, I've been working on too many things myself these days, frankly. I have bought Conspirocracy, and I am somewhat planning on streaming it. I'll announce date and time, if so. Otherwise I'll play it on my own time and write a review.

Monday, January 13, 2014

I frankly was not thinking my day would start with writing an article for the AGS blog, let alone for Anastronaut II. But the trailer got me so impressed I'm buying this as I type out the words completing sentences in this article.

From the trailer, it appears LOTS of wonderful effort has been put to this. The artwork and animation is simply stunning, and there are lots of cinematic sequences. A plethora of elements is showcased at the trailer, somewhat giving the impression that Anastronaut 2, is a really lengthy game.

The game is fully speeched, it has a soundtrack that uses some classical songs here and there, and it's remniscent of the older sierra games.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Dualnames has made it his mission in life to interview as many AGSers as possible, which is a nice service but would leave one AGSer out. I mean, the man can't interview himself, can he? So let's return the favour and play a game of 20 Questions with the man I always imagine to reach for his towel when things get rough. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Spanos!

So, the obvious questions first: How did you find AGS?
Well, I bought this magazine, and it had a two page feature article on AGS. It focused on how easy and professional it looks to make games with the engine. However, that didn't get me here. What did was the very fact that I had downloaded over 40 engines, and the only one that looked worth bothering was AGS. I still have that folder in my computer. Aptly and randomly named "game on my ass". I don't know either.

How did you come to like adventure games? And while we are at it: First game ever played?
Secretly, I don't like adventure games much. But my favorite game is an adventure game. Thus I was very fond of the idea to make one. First game...? Mhh.. a tennis on the ATARI 2600.

Do you have a favourite AGS game? And also a favourite non-AGS game?
Well, favorite AGS game is probably the Barn Runner series. I've never laughed so much in front of any screen, and felt so guilty afterwards. Favorite non-AGS game would definitely be Monkey Island II. I eventually give it a yearly go.

Which games have you made so far, and which one are you the most proud of, and why?
I've made/worked on 26 completed games. Proudest moments include some work on Downfall and the Cat Lady, remaking the text-based Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, making a short game based on the last four chapters of the first book, the AGS Ceremony game alongside Wyz, providing music for two Barn Runner games, one bake sale entry, 4 MAGS entries and the list is practically endless. The game I considered my top notch work is Primordia. The code lines endlessly running every 1/40 of a second are way lot to make sure everything works fine. Plus I spent 2.5 years working on it.

Is there anything you are working on right now- on your own or as part of a team?
Some projects including other engines, but nothing worth showing or talking about.

What is YOUR opinion about the elusive Golden Era of AGS? Did it happen, does it happen? Will it happen?
I believe it probably happened. I've spent many days browsing the forums, looking for older posts, I'm quite sure it's all nostalgia glasses.

Three favourites: Book, Movie, Song.
Book: So Long And Thanks For All The Fish by Douglas Adams
Movie: Brazil by Terry Gilliam
Song: Saber Rider Theme

You're very involved in the AGS Awards. What makes them so special?
Bicilotti. 'Nough said.

If I were to explain it, I'd say it's like a reunion, a festive joy full of people excited about game-making celebrating efforts of the previous year and getting pumped up for the one currently on-going. It's magical really.

You often assist with music and programming- not exactly very related skills. Which do you like better?
Programming. Music is a passion in general, and I thirst for it, either listening or creating, but programming is where my home is.

Worst game you ever played? (And actually stopped playing because it was THAT bad!)
Tales of Monkey Island. Perhaps the expectations were high, but it really let me down. I was expecting a continuation of the series, not just boring tales of Guybrush's life.

Since I have one of the Primordia team literally in front of me: Give us a little anectode, a glimpse behind the scenes, if possible.
The most amazing thing regarding the game's creation process was how an australian (Victor Pflug), a greek (me, duh!) and a west-coast american (Mark Yohalem) with about 10 hours difference from each other, would end up talking in live chat at the same time. A wonderful thing would be how I would nagg to Mark about how impossible was what he asked me to code, and then I would code it anyway. And that kept me trying to see if there would be an end to my luck.

Your contribution to the Bake Sale, RETINA, was one of the more unconventional games in the bundle. How did you come up with the idea?
Retina was an idea of a two-game bundle along with Igor Hardy's Inertia, that wasn't finished by that time. Igor had his plot, I only had the idea to use an anagraph of his game title.
The game is mostly based on Yume Nikki and 1984. I came up with the idea by combining the dystopian hell, I had constructed for Troica and the interrogation room from 1984, with the inevitability portrayed in Yume Nikki.

If I were to give you unlimited resources- What game would you make?
Brazil, the movie, into a sci-fi noir game.

Since you did both, what would you say is nicer; making a game all on your own, or as part of a team?
Definitely working with a team. It's easier and amazingly entertaining.

How do you feel about more and more commercial AGS games being made- and actually selling quite well?
Frankly, I think it's about time. AGS has always been a beacon to adventure games, and the very fact that Yahtzee has created one of the most celebrated indie games, showed the potential in the market in commercial terms. The game quality in AGS has increased drastically, and people, realizing the profit, prefer to actually spend their efforts on commercial projects and actually gain some income from their hobby.

You made an AGS remake of Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy, an beloved Infocom text adventure (that is reportedly one of the most illogical, unfair, unplayable-without-knowing-the-source-games). Tell us a bit why, and how, you made that game.
The time I spent on the remake will always be something I hold dear. Plus it fullfilled a long-time dream, of me being featured in a greek videogames magazine. It's a wonderful game, it's only drawback was the fact that you could reach a dead-end or die. Which is why I removed the dead-ends and made this a bit easier. Why is easy, because noone else would. How is with lots of work and endless time spent on the original source, conceptualizing, coding and drawing.

It's 2020 now and you boot up your computer. How does AGS do at the time?
Hopefully alive and kicking. Ben304 has made the exact amount of games as the number on his nickname.

"Adventure games: The genre is dead." We hear that a lot. Your comment, Mr. Spanos?
Not yet.

To make it Twenty Questions: Who's the hoopier frood, Zaphod or Ford?
I'm going to go with Ford. Most sarcastic alien ever created.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

TheBitPriest wrote a wonderful walkable areas and pathfinding article on the wikipages, explaining what to do to ensure your walkable area is drawn correctly, and you won't experience any pathfinding issues. Copied a part of the wiki article for your eyes below.Introduction

Knowing a few details about the inner workings of AGS's path-finding algorithm can be helpful when designing walkable areas. Some designers have been frustrated by what would seem to be random reasons for a player-character not to be able to navigate to a desired location. For instance, a player-character may be able to successfully navigate a path from one direction and not the other, resulting in the character getting stuck in portions of a room.

The Easiest and Optimal Solution

The easiest way to ensure that you have an optimized walkable area is to make certain that your area fits within the following 3x3 grid. You can expand the grid by pasting together more points at the same aspect ratio.

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Explaining the impact Ghost has left to me as a member of the AGS community after first meeting him, and our general talks over the years, would take forever. A wonderful person, a mentor to my favorite AGS member, and an amazing game designer. Originally I first talked to Ghost after apologizing about demanding DITA (Daemons In The Attic), now I can safely say, he has better projects coming up. The only man with the courage to pull a Yahtzee and come back. To haunt. 1) This is a typical question asked to all interviewed people. So, how did you find AGS?

That was way back in 199something. There was a game show back then that was rather popular ("Giga Games") and they did a report on AGS. It was really cool; they showcased King's Quest VGA, which was at the time one of the best-looking AGS games. Then they tasked an intern to make a small game during the course of one show (30 minutes, actually!), and he actually managed to do it. So the next day I hogged a computer at our university, downloaded AGS and had a good rummaging around, and I think a week later I registered on the forums.2) Do you have a favorite AGS and/or non-AGS game?

Boo, that is an unfair question! There's so many good AGS games... But I think Apprentice Deluxe will alway be special to me. It was one of the first games I downloaded (back then, kids, internet was slow, and small games were so much easier to carry on a disk... you know, these square things? No?). Now the thing about Apprentice is, it looks awesome; I couldn't believe it was only 320x240. So many small neat animations, such attention to detail! After playing it (and the sequel) I started to really work on my sprite art.
Non AGS game, currently, would be Starbound. Yeah. But that changes so often. I just like playing games.

3) How many games have you worked on so far? And which one would you consider your magnus opus and why.

Personally I have made five games worth speaking of- Once Upon A Crime, Chance of the Dead, Hubris, RAM Ghost and one silly MAGS Oceanspirit Dennis game. All of them are sort of okay I'd say. Chance of the Dead is the most polished one and I like the main character a lot. It also got me back into game-making after quite a hiatus, so yes, Chance of the Dead it is.

Ghost's DOTT-Styled wonderfulness.

4) Is there anything you're working on right now or planning on working on? You give me the impression of working into 24 projects per day, yet I see few of them to ever grace my computer screen.

I have more games "in the making" than I have released, yes, but that is how I work. I like to take a silly premise, add a bit of a twist, some depth, and then iterate over that. A lot. So what I do is, I often jump right into a game and just watch it develop into something. I make stuff up as I go along and try out what could work. It's a wasteful way of doing things but it usually works for me.

Right now I have no actual projects or WIPs at all.

5) Here's a blast from the past, but where is Daemons In The Attic?

DITA is pretty much abandoned, but it has taught me a lot. I uploaded the demo for that game a month or so after I registered, I think, and it was well received back them. These days I think it wouldn't hold up too well. But I learned a lot while I tried to make that game. I learned how evil future creep can be. I wrote my first complete GUI for it- and some of that code I still use! Some sprites eventually got recycled in later games. I also learned how easy it is to create recursive backup folders when you never delete any backups

6) I know it's probably already responded, but how do you feel now about your decision to delete your account back then? Is it something you regret?

No, not at all. At the time is felt like a sensible decision. I felt no longer at home at the forums. Some arkward stuff had happened. I am very disappointed in the overall reactions though. Several people were jumping to conclusions and that was not a happy sight. I had left quietly to avoid "pulling a Yathzee", as they say, and in the end my actions were made louder by other people who just voiced guesses.

7) Since you're an old member of the AGS, did the Gold AGS Era ever exist? Or is it rumours? (I asked miguel the same question, but I want to know)

That depends on what you consider a Golden Era. Personally I think one was happening when I first registered late in the 90s. Everyone could just jump into the action and make something cool; the entry bar was lower. There were all sorts of silly little games that got cheered; it felt much more carefree back then. That's not to say that the games were actually better back then. It just felt a little more lighthearted back then- maybe nostalgia glasses.

8) As a person, you've participated in many events that advertised the friendly face of AGS outside this community. How do you feel about it? What are the reasons behind such actions that promote the good face of AGS as an engine and as community?

Adventure games must never die. Quote me on that. There is no genre more accessible and full of opportunities to create something unique.

Friday, January 3, 2014

The AGS Awards are close at hand, and a poll has just been made available in this thread, allowing us all to shape the future of the well-liked event. Should commercial games compete within their own field, or are all AGS games created equal? Do we need more or less categories? And should there be a special section for Barn Runner games?
Hit that link, ladies and gentlemen.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

So here we are, a fresh new year and lots of blank pages yet to be written. 2014, way to go.

Last year saw a lot of things happening on the forums and I am curious to see if they will continue to happen:

Commercial AGS games are by now very clearly a thing. In addition to the venerable Wadjet Eye company there have been a couple of commercial games by small teams or individuals. Steam seems to be favoured and the "adventure" section now contains a really nice selection of AGS games. Personally I am very much in favour of this development; it shows that our little passion is a bit more than an oddball genre people keep alive for the sake of it. It shows that there is still a demand for these games. It shows that a community can give rise to people who make a bit of money or even a living out of their passion, and that is awesome.

At the same time, AGS (now open-source) seems bound to break out of its initial boundaries. The current beta indicates that, while many things in both editor and runtime will remain the same, cross-platform as well as removal of old limits are within reach. The contributors are still much in favour of backwards compatibility, which is a nice touch... but again, personally I think that at some times these ties will be severed. AGS is still pushing forward and needs to do so. I tip my hat to the talented people working on the editor and providing us with the tools to make awesome games.
Just, hey, please: Can someone bring back the Make My Game button? It used to be so awesome!

Lots of games have been released and I feel that the bar is rising- when I first registered on the forums you basically got a huge cheer when you made an effort not to use the default game template. But new people pour in and some have cool ideas and as a result I feel the over quality, especially of "first games", is rising. The cool thing about a large community is that you see a lot of individual takes on the established genre, and very often a breeze of fresh wind can go a long way.

Most importantly, despite the fact that it is no longer "the genre", 2013 saw a lot of quality AA titles. Deponia made it to a full trilogy of awesomeness. The Dark Eye adventure games seem to become a mainstay. I read somewhere that they are planning an Oddworld Point-and-Click. The genre is still there, everyone's mum can kickstart a game these days, and people are willing to back.

I rub the crystal ball and see: 2014, just as the year before, will be a year of adventure games.